It may have been their first time competing in track and field, but being the athletes they are, Natalie Hill, Josh Upton and Austin Brown qualified provisionally for the States in the 800, shot put and long jump respectively.
Last Friday, Houlton’s track and field team competed in their opening meet in Caribou.
“For several of them, it was the first time they had ever even stepped foot on a track ever, let alone this season,” said Houlton coach Chris Rines.
Hill was runner-up in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:43.7, while Upton was second in the shot put with a throw of 39 feet, 4 inches and Brown jumped a distance of 17 feet, 10 inches for a second-place finish.
“There are plenty of kids who just narrowly missed the qualifying times,” Rines said. “I am confident that in another meet or two our list of qualifiers will grow. We also had several kids qualify for the PVC championships, as well.
“We had a lot of highlights in our first outing and everyone did really well for an excellent start to the season,” he added.
In girls’ competition, Hill, Olivia Winslow, Madelene Anderson and Rylee Warman made up Houlton’s 4×800-meter relay team, which was clocked in the 3,200-meter at 12 minutes and six seconds. They were third out of three teams competing.
In the 4×400-meter relay, Hill, Emma Drew, Olivia White and Emily Mooers (some of who competed in the Hershey Track and Field program through the Houlton Rec) came in third out of four teams in the 1,600-meter relay with a time of 5:10.24. The fourth team was disqualified for a passing zone infraction.
Hill placed third in the 100-meter with a time of 14.2, with Emily Mooers finishing seventh with a time of 14.6 and Emma Drew was 13th in a time of 15.13.
In the 200-meter, Mooers placed fourth with a time of 30.84, with Drew ninth, 32.78 and White, 12th, 34.12.
The 400-meter had Houlton runners White, seventh, in a time of 1:18.63 and Winslow, 10th, 1:30.98.
After Hill’s runner-up position in the 800-meter, Anderson was eighth in a time of 3:04.37 and Winslow, 12th, 3:25.77.
Rylee Warman ran the 1,600-meter for a sixth-place finish in 6:22.31 and the 3,200-meter for fourth place with a time of 13:49.22.
In the field competition, Drew was ninth in the javelin with a throw of 62 feet, five inches, while Hannah Foley was 14th with a distance of 57 feet, eight inches and White, 17th, with a throw of 54 feet, two inches. Anderson was 10th in the shot put pushing the ball 21 feet, four inches.
The girls’ team accumulated 35 points to come in sixth out of seven teams. Washburn did not score any points on the girls’ side therefore only six teams appear on the team results.
The Houlton boys represented the school well with several top 10 track finishes. In the 4×400 relay, Isaiah Brown, Nathan Bouchard, Adam Casillas and Austin Brown stole third place, according to Rines, from Presque Isle beating them by nine-hundredths of a second.
“They covered the 1,600-meter distance in 4:09.51 and ran against five teams,” he added.
In the 100-meter dash, Austin Brown came in second with a time of 12.28; Upton was ninth, 12.73; Tre Whitney, 17th, 13.05; Bouchard, 30th, 13.76; and Tim Glatter, 37th, 14.86.
Brown stayed at the top of the field in the 200-meter dash finishing third with a time of 25.38 and Upton came in 17th clocked at 28.53.
In the 400-meter, Whitney was fifth, 1:04.68; Bouchard, sixth, 1:05.21 and Casillas, ninth, 1:06.22.
Isaiah Brown led Houlton in the 800-meter run with a sixth-place finish in a time of 2:18.83; Casillas, 13th, 2:33.18; Bouchard, 16th, 2:37.76; and Whitney, 17th, 2:43.68.
In the 1,600-meter, Isaiah Brown was fourth at 5:15.08 and Casillas, 10th, 5:34.49.
In the javelin throw, Glatter was 13th with a throw of 95 feet, while in the discus, Upton was ninth with a distance of 81 feet, 3 inches; Glatter, 17th, 71 feet; and Damon Reynolds, 27th, 55 feet, 1 inch. Reynolds was also 20th in the shot put throwing 26 feet, 5 inches.
The boys would also finish in sixth place out of seven teams, scoring 44 points.
“Overall, we had a very good day and the kids all had a good time,” said Rines. “We had a good fan base with lots of support up there, every school was happy to have Houlton step back into the world of track and field.”
The next meet for Houlton High School is Saturday in MDI, with teams from George Stevens Academy, Hermon, MDI and Presque Isle.
